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Summer update: while you were tanning

Assault in Jorgenson

By Lauran Blenkinsop

A woman was sexually assaulted in a stairwell in Jorgenson Hall in mid-July by a man posing as a photographer from the University of Toronto.

He asked if he could take her photo for a marketing campaign. She agreed and he began to sexually assault her while asking her to undo the buttons on her top, but she managed to escape.

The man, who sometimes goes by ‘Steve’ has been wanted for sexual assault since the spring. He’s been seenaround the downtown core — mainly near the two university campuses — and asks women to pose for photos for varying projects. He then lures them into a secluded area to sexually assault them.

The man is 40-50 years old with brown scraggly facial hair. He is just over six feet tall with a thin build and rides a white bicycle.

This is one of four confirmed sexual assaults along with numerous other unsuccessful attempts by the same man, said Detective Rob Ermacora, who is in charge of the case for Toronto Police.

Manager of Security Services, Lawrence Robinson was not available for comment.

Security flakes

By Liz Do

In a neighbourhood that encompasses Hooker Harvey’s, Zanzibar and a sizable population of crazy drunks, it’s a smart idea to be educated on personal safety. But on July 26, parents and first-time residence students at an orientation event missed out on campus safety tips due to a miscommunication between organizers and members of Ryerson’s security.

Chris Beninger, supervisor of Security and Crime Prevention, was scheduled to give a presentation at noon for Rez Day at Rye, an event held by Student Housing for incoming Pitman, ILLC and O’Keefe residents and their parents. But according to Beninger, once he had arrived, the parents and students were already gone.

“I had come down from Mississauga to talk, but they had been way ahead of schedule and they didn’t want to keep the parents and students waiting so they moved on by the time we [security] got there.”

“Security was invited, but there was some miscommunication,” said student housing manager Glen Weppler when asked about the mix-up. To help alleviate the problem, on move-in day, student housing offered two parent sessions, which included information on city and residence safety.

“I talk to the students about robbery prevention for things like lockers and laptops. And I just talk about being safe in general, travelling in well-lit areas, letting security know if you will be out very late, taking advantage of the safety poles we have around here and the Walk Safe program. And if they request it, we also offer self-defence sessions. We had about three or four sessions last year,” Beninger said.

But fear not froshies, according to Weppler, first-time residence students will have more chances to learn campus and city safety during regular residence floor meetings. Those interested in more information can contact security for pamphlets and information on self-defence classes.

Research cash

By Laura Blenkisop

Research at Ryerson received $150,000 from the McGuinty government this August under the Ontario Research Fund’s Research Infrastructure program. Robert Dristein, director of the office of research services at Ryerson says it is a “good whack of change” that will be used for equipment in researchers’ labs.

What you really think

By Julianna Cummins

The results of Ryerson’s 2007 First-Year Student Survey are in. Sadly, only 10 per cent of first-years responded to the survey, and most of those were females from the Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD). Lucky for you, us folks at The Eyeopener think we can pull off a way better survey (for a lot less cash) than the University Planning Office can.

Eat it, OneCard

By Emily Raben

Freshmen, you better eat up because any money left on your meal cards in April flies directly into Student Services’ deep pockets. Last year, around $3000 of unspent OneCard money was funnelled back into Ryerson’s bank account.

John Corallo, director of ancillary services, sees no problem with students losing their money at the conclusion of the year.

“You buy a meal plan and it has a start and an end date, you must use it within the given time period.” he said.

Ryerson students living on campus in either Pitman Hall or the ILLC are forced to purchase a meal plan ranging from $2,500 to $3,100 dollars for the school year. It transfers onto the Ryerson student card, which is called a OneCard. The OneCard is like a debit card and can be used at the available food outlets throughout Ryerson’s campus.

Lauren McCarthy, a second-year business student, lived in Pitman Hall last year and struggled to zero her card before school ended.

“I had over $600 left on my OneCard by the last few weeks of school. I was buying all of my friends’ meals just to try to get rid of some of it. It seemed like such a waste of my money.”

Corallo said the mandatory meal plan exists to ensure that food services in the ILLC and Pitman Hall have a proper budget each year. The budget is drawn out according to the amount of money purchased on every student’s meal plan.

If the money was returned, food services in student housing wouldn’t be able to balance their budget. All of the leftover money goes back into the food services for the upcoming school year.

 


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